An Easter Finish.

I finished the binding on this earlier this week and have finally got around to taking some photos. I did a scrappy binding, five different prints to blend in with all the scrappy squares.

Look! Its a quilt with feet! It's so hard to get good help these days, I asked Daz to come out and help me take some photos. And despite him having a Photography Minor In a Bachelor of Arts Media Studies, he still takes a crap photo which I love teasing him about!

 I'm not ready Daz!

It measures 60 inches square, perfect lap size. It hasn't got a home to go to. I think I'll hang onto it till the local show in July and then gift it to someone.

Close up of the quilting, green pebbles for the green section, yellow pebbles for the yellow and blue pebbled for the blue section! This really was a great stash busting quilt, I used up prints that I wouldn't normally use.

It also makes a great cape as Milly discovered!

My Weekend.

I had a productive weekend, always helps when the husband goes away on a nine hour fishing jaunt! I have a friends birthday coming up in April and she likes blue. So a simple table runner was in order, I selected the fabric, sewed squares within squares to fit the wadding left over strip I had. Made the squares 9 inches then lined them up amd framed them all with Kona cornflower blue. Sandwiched it quickly then started quilting it, just simple up and down straight stitching. All done and waiting on the binding.

Go Milly!

 Milly recieved a merit certificate yesterday. For her enthusiasm towards learning. She is such a sponge for knowledge, she hasn't lost it yet, hopefully she won't ever. She is a delight to teach. Well done Milly, we are very proud of you.

I did find myself getting more excitied about this award though that was presented at the same assembly. The Big Barra Award is awarded to a kid who's behaviour has improved recently. And Alice won! Little Alice who created my favourite block from Miss W's quilt back in 2010. She has been in Milly's class for the last three years, two kids in the same class who will lead two different lives....

International Quilting Day.

Yesterday was International Quilting Day. So I pulled out this quilt top and finished quilting the last half a metre or so that I had to go. It didn't take long either, about an hour.

 So I had time to trim it, get the binding on and pin it into place.

All ready to hand sew down while watching the current favourite show in our house. I also celebrated International Quilting Day by buying a new sewing machine. This one here, now to wait paitently for the 10 - 12 days it will take to get here. I hope your International Quilting Day was just as productive!

Scrappy Trip Around The World Top Finished.

I had my real life quilting group today, I'm going along this year. I took these blocks with the intention of finishing this top and wolah, I did. We had a fantastic thunderstorm go through while I was there, came home to a flooded backyard! The dark brown squares are jumping out in this, but to be honest I don't really care, I'm over it! Have reached the "I just want it finished stage" and I still have no idea who this quilt is for. I decided to make this as I saw so many lovely ones around on blogs but now I have finished the top, I don't think its really me, I should stick to making stuff I like. Lesson learnt.

WIP Wednesday Week 10

I have been doing some of my Christmas cross stitch. Not sure about the V.... might have to add some more to the sides.

Scrappy Trip Around the World Update.

I have been plodding away on my blocks for this Scrappy Around the World quilt. After laying all these out on the floor, I think I have 6 more blocks to go till its at a size I am happy with. I don't know who this quilt is for though, uaually I make things for a person in mind but this one hasn't a home as yet and that feels odd I will admit.

Another February Finsh.

I finished the binding and label on this table runner yesterday, a few hours before the birthday girls dinner. Was very happy with how it turned out. The girls and I had to do some chores at a friends house out of town, so I took the runner and camera for a photo shoot in their overgrown paddock with the beautiful boab trees in the background.

This is the back, almost as good as the front!

Grace's was happy to be photographers assistant, "Mum, my arms hurt, can we go home now?" Another Febraury finish, have to be happy with that.

WIP Wednesday Week 8.

Work In Progress Wednesday, already the weeks are slipping by. I have sandwiched my sunny table runner and only have about 6 inches left to quilt. Nothing fancy, just the usual straight up, pivot, straight back down again. It's my friends birthday tomorrow but I'm not going to give this to her till Saturday night when we are going out for tea to celebrate. Check out what the rest of the WIP Wednesday ladies are up to here.

And now for something totally different, look! It is a cross stitch! I brought this at Spotlight when we were in Perth for Christmas in 2011. It has sat unopened on my shelf since them. I thought it would be fun to do in the car on htose long drives. I went to my girl friends house on Saturday, she is an avid cross stitcher, I took it along for her to get me started. This is where I got up to.... its going to take awhile but I have till Christmas!

Ready to Quilt....

 I have finished the top for this sunny runner, it is the one on the right. Ended up being four squares. I had one extra so I have put that on the backing, which is hanging on the left. Its very bright!

I haven't brought any fabric so far this year, but I have brought thread from here! This is what 10,000 yards of King Tut looks like. Love the names. Papyrus. Desert Wind. Baby Moses. Angel Yellow and Angel Green.Think I'll use Angel Yellow to quilt this sunny runner.

A Sunny Table Runner.

Well, the next runner is underway! I pulled a selection of red, orange and yellow fabric from the stash and started sewing squares in squares. I had an extra long peice of wadding I was sewing to the width of. I started with six blocks but they are 18 inches wide so I think it will be five blocks and I'll put one with the backing.

Now that I have sewn them, now I am going to slice them in quarters and rearrange them! Like these two quilts here.

A February Finish!

I'm going back to my real life quilting group this year. First gathering of the year was yesterday and I took along this to finish. All I had to do was sew down the binding, join it up and then iron it over and pin in place. A little 20 minute job. So it was done and sewed the binding down by hand last night while watching the very unsettling The Impossible.

I quilted this simply in a grid pattern. It's on our table now. Daz is very ho hum about it, said it is "very Nannaish!" Hmph! Onto the next runner then!

WIP Wednesday Week 6.

I am still plodding away with this table runner.We lost power over the weekend (again!) and we discovered that you can play Monopoly and sandwich a table runner withour power! Then I managed to quilt it later that weekend, just simple lines each side of the seams, like a grid and now I'm up to the binding. Its all cut ready to go, just finding that fifteen minutes to sew it on! Lets see what the rest of the ladies are up to over here.

Back to School 2013!

Ahhh, first day smiles! Back to school today officially, we have popped in a few times last week due to our work commitments but this morning it was uniforms on and down to business! Milly is in grade three this year, which I can not believe! We moved up here when she was starting preprimary, now we are looking at our fourth year up here. Grace is in year five this year. She has 20 boys in her class out of a class of 29 students! Looking foward to a great year for both of them.

WIP Wednesday Week 5.

Okay, so its not Wednesday, its Thursday were I am, but its still Wedensday over at Freshly Pieced so I'm letting it count! Yesterday was the last day of my summer holidays and I spent it sewing with the intention of blogging after dinner. But then we had a big storm come through and the whole town lost power for about four hours, most inconvient! Lucky it wasn't during the day as then I couldn't have got any sewing done. I finished the top to this runner earlier this week. Its not as big as I had hoped. Thats what you get for using mini charms I guess. The friend this is for has a massive dining room table and this would just look lost on it. So I'm pondering between making something else or just giving it to her, I mean she might not want to put it on her massie dining room table? I'll ponder that as I quilt it, I have the backing fabric selected, just need to unroll the wadding and cut some to size. But instead of reaching for that roll of wadding, what happens? I start another project!

I have seen so many lovely scrappy Trip Around The World quilts on flickr and on blogs, it has been very inspirational. So I decided to start making one, as you do. I'm using the tutorial over at Quiltville which is awesome. The tutorial is for a block with 6 squares, I didn't want it quite so big. so I made mine 5 squares. Which was fine until it came to the ironing part, I have to fold one in half in the tube. Those of you that have made the block like in the tutorial will understand the ironing tube bit hopefully.

So here are the first four blocks, colourful! I'm slipping some fabric in there which is orphaned and will most likely never see the light of day. I have a heap of strips cut ready to go, after I go unroll that wadding perhaps?!

First Finish for 2013!

I have finished this table runner. It is called Feista and it is from a book titled Skinny Quilts. The pattern was based on four groups of blocks which would have made it a whopping 70.5 inches long. I only did three groups of blocks and that made this runner just on 48 inches long which I thought was a better length.

I used up all my fabric recieved from Christmas, using the scraps for the backing! The binding was from my stash of solids though. I just had to add three small light purple scraps and it was perfect. Maybe even better than the front? The husband thinks so if his opinion counts.

Looks at home on my table but it's rolled up ready to post to it's new home. Would I make this pattern again? Unsure.... maybe.

WIP Wednesday Week 4.

I have decided to do WIP Wednesday posts again for 2013 and I am joining in over at Freshly Pieced in the fun. Even though it says week 4, this is my first WIp post for 2013, I'll keep along with the calendar years. This is what I am working on at the moment. I have broken open the little mini charm packs I got for Christmas and I am making whirly gig blocks out of them for a tablerunner! In hindsight most likely not the best block to choose to show off the fabric as once sewn together a 2.5 inch charm equals a block just over 3 inches. Hopefully this time next week it will be a WIP shot of sewing down binding.

Bali 2013.

 

We are back from holiday. It only seems like yesterday we were getting on the plane, now I find myself back to reality! We had a very relaxing time in Bali. It was basically the same holiday exactly as last year here! No hair braiding or elephant rides this time though, lots of reading by the pool, swimming in the pool and eating yummy food. Divine! We have three weeks of holidays left, taking the dust cover off the machine tomorrow morning!

Hello Holidays!

Even though we have been on holidays for about two weeks now, it only feels we are really on holidays now as this time tomorrow we will hopefully somewhere between Katherine and Darwin. We are spending a few days in Delightful Darwin before flying out for ten days in Beautiful Bali. So I have put the cover on the sewing machine. The machine must have wanted an early holiday as yesterday afternoon my free motion quilting foot broke, lost its spring, kept catching on the fabric seams, not gliding along. So looks like a new foot from Darwin Spotlight! I used my sewing time to start cutting fabric for a new table runner from my new book. It felt real funny cutting from a pattern, usually I just cut.... Anyway, its ready to go for after the holidays!

Happy New Year dear blog readers. Do you make resolutions? I try to..... this year I am going to try and reply to comments. I read every one and think "cool!" and then move onto the next email. Time to hit reply before next. I have also signed up for Rachels Reading Challenge. To read 13 books for the year. Any book you like on any topic, no kids picture books though! I thought with two weeks on a real holiday stretched out in front of me, lazing by the pool, I'll be able to plough through a few! First one selected is Death Comes to Pemberley, a spin off from Pride and Prejudice. I have read it before, but I have just finished listen to a podcast of Pride and Prejudice, lets keep the story line going!

A Rainbow Whirlygig.

I took a break yesterday for all that pebbling and took 30 minutes to finish the little bit of binding left to sew down and wolah, this quilt was finished. I've said it before, but I'll say it agian, I love the Whirlygig block!

I used some Prints Charming fabric for the backing and the binding was a stripe print from Micheal Miller. Thats Grace on the label holding the child the quilt is for.

Quilting with My New Spool Holder!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions over to add another row or not. I went for the opinion that matters the most.... the husbands! LOL He took one look at it lying on the floor laid out and said "Nope, its finished." So I peiced together a backing from the stash, sandwiched it, loaded the FMQ foot and started quilting. I was thinking stipple, nice and quick and easy but ended up doing largish, loose pebbles. 8 bobbin changes later and the green was done!

Then for the row of yellow. I didn't have enough yellow cotton in the stash so I decided on white. Trouble is I am sewing back on my little Brother Super Ace 3 and it doesn't have a large upright spool holder. Nothing some bluetack, a pencil, cardboard and some masking tape can't fix though! I'm half way down the second side of yellow and Its working perfectly.

More Scrappy Squares!

An action packed day of sewing yesterday, I got all these blue squares done and just have 16 to go. I like to cut a bit to make say 30 - 40 blocks, sew those but with a third of the fabric not used, then cut some more fabric, sew another thirty and mix the first batch of fabric in with the next. That way I can keep a tab on how many blocks I have to sew, I don't want to be left with any spares! And also it mixes up the colour range, I don't want  one section of the row to be all the same floral and spots, KWIM?

So is this quilt finished with two rows of blue? Or does it need another row? It measures 56 x 56 inches. I shared a photo online last night with some quilting buddies for opinions. One vote for another row of green. Two votes for another row of blue. Three votes for leave as is and then an unexpected one vote for another row but of red! I think I like the red idea.......

Green & Blue & Yellow Scrappy Squares

I started this quilt back here in August. It got folded up and pushed to the side while Christmas table runners and baby quilts got in the way. I have unfolded it though and am determined to finish it before the year is out. The yellow strips weren't sewn on, 15 minutes of sewing fized that!

 

Now the plan is to add two rows of blue. I have calculated I need 112 squares, I've done 36!

Christmas Day 2012.

Merry Christmas dear blog readers. (I know there is at least one! Thank you Ruth for all your lovely comments on my blog throughout the year.) I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday. It started very early in this house with the girls up at 5.00 already having tackled their stocking and standing by our bed side at 5.15 asking when they can open whats under the tree. I stretched them out till 6am! We opened our presents, chatted on the phone to family over the other side of Australia then packed some drinks and snacks and headed out in the boat.

We went to our favourite destination, Sandy Beach, a 30 minute boat ride up the river. Its a popular spot but for the whole three hours nobody was there which was fantastic! We put the gazebo up, had a coffee, had some gingerbread and fruit mince pies, went for a swim, watched the grey clouds roll over the range in front of us. It was beautiful, very lucky and thankful to be here for Christmas Day.

I did have some quilting related presents under the tree which was wonderful. I had purchased them for myself (except for the fat eighth bundle from my sister Ad, once again spoiling me with beautiful fabric) so it wasn't a total suprise but lovely never the less. The Skinny Quilt book looks really good, inspiration for more table runners for 2013! The material is from the Fat Quarter Shop, I love the little mini charm packs, super cute! I brought them in multiples of two so I can make whirly gig runners easily. And yardage of plain solids, the dusty blue to go with the Kate Spain fabric and the green to go with the other pack. Time for some serious sewing!

This is my greatest gift though. The affection these two girls show towards each other is heartwarming. For all the yelling at them and nagging I do throughout the year, no more or less than any other parent I am sure, and here they are with grins as wide as the watermelon slices they are eating. Life is good.

A Finished Table Runner.

I don't know what to call this runner, the red Kaffe runner? I finished it today. Enjoyed listening to a podcast of Pride and Prejudice on the ipad while sewing down the binding. I don't think this photo does it justice, its so long, it measures 13 by 44 inches. I love it, I want to sew another!

A detail of the quilting, wonky straight lines. So now just the label to sew and then to wrap and present to the new owner on Tuesday. Hope she likes it. Next sewing project!